The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1887-08-13
TALMAGE'S SERMON.

Tho heavens we're opened. Ezekiel L, I.
Ezekiel, with others, had been expa-
frIatcd, and while In foreign slavery
was standing on the banks OF the royal
canal which he and other serfs had
been condemned to dig by the order of
Nebuchadnezzar- royal canal, In
the text called the river Of Chebar; the
IlIustrious exile had visions of heaven.
Indeed, II Ia almost always so that the
brightest visions OF heaven come not
10 those who are on mountain top OF
prosperity. but 10 some John on desc
late Patmos, or TO some Paul In Manner
tine dungeon. or TO some Ezekiel stand
ing on the banks OF a ditch he had
been compelled 10 dig yea. to the
weary, 10 the heart broken, to those
whom sorrow has banished.
The text is very particular TO give
us the exact time of the vision. IL
was In the thirteth year, and In the
fourth month. and In the fifth day of
the month. SO you have had visions
OF earth you shall never forget You
remember the year. you remember the
month, you remember the day, you re-
member the hour. Why may not we
have some such vision this morning,
and II be in the sixth month and in the
fourth day of the month";
The question is often silently asked,
though perhaps never audibly pro-
pounded: "What are our departed
Christian friends doing now?" The
question is more easily answered than
you might perhaps suppose. Though
there has come no recent intelligence
from the heavenly city, and we seem
dependent upon the story of eighteen
centuries ago. still | think we may
from strongest inference decide what
are the present occupations OF our
transferred kinsfolk.
After God has made nature he
never eradicates the chief characteris-
tics Of its temperament. You never
knew n man phlegmatic in tempera-
ihent TO become sanguine in tempera-
ment. You never knew a man san
gu'ne In temperament 10 become
phlegmatic in temperament. CONVEX
sion plants new principles in the soul,
but PAUL and John are just as differ
ent from each other after conversion
as they were different from each other
before conversion. IL conversion does
not eradicate the prominent character
istics of the temperament neither will
death eradicate them.
You have, then. only by a sum in
subtraction and sum in addition 10
decide what are the cmployments OF
your departed friends in the better
world. You are TO subtract from them
allearthly grossness and add all earth
~ goodness, and then you are to come
10 the conclusion that they are doing
now In heaven what In their best mo-
ments they did on earth. The reason
that so many people rever start for
heaven is because they could not stand
IL IL they got there, IL 1t should turn
out TO be the rigid and formal place
some people photograph IL.
We like TO come TO church, but we
would not want to stay here TO next
Christmas. We like TO hear the Hal
lelujah Chorus, but we would not
want TO hear IL all the time for fifty
centuries. 1t might be on some great
occasion IL would be possibly comfort
able to wear crown of gold weighing
several pounds, but IL would be aftiic-
ton TO wear such crown forever In
other words. we run the descriptions
of heaven into tie ground, while we
make that which was intended as es-
pecial and celebrative TO be the exclu-
sive employment OF the heaven. You
might as well, IL asked 10 describe the
habits of American society, describe
Decoration Day or Fourth of July.
or an autumnal Thanksgiving, as
though IL were all the time that way.
am not going TO speculate In re-
gard 20 the future world; but | must.
by inevitable laws of inference and
deduction and common sense, con
clude that In heaven we will be just as
different from each other as we are
now different, and hence, that there
will be at least as many different EN-
ployments In the celestial world as
there are employments here. Christ
IN 20 be the great love, the great Joy,
the great rapture, the great worship of
heaven; but will that abolish employ
mentf No more than loves on earth
--paternal. flial. fraternal, conjugal
love--a abolish earthly occupation.
In the first place, remark that all
those Of our departed Christian friends
who on earth found great Joy In the
fine arts are now INDUCING their tastes
in the same direction. On earth they
had their gladdest pleasures amid pic
lures and statuary, and in the study
OF the laws Of light and shade and per
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